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Here's CC's link regarding facebook: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/faq.php?faq=rollcalls#faq_fb

Cruise Critic's Policy Re: Facebook Roll Call Groups

Cruise Critic loves Facebook. in fact, we maintain FB pages for all of our sites (Cruise Critic, CruiseCritic.co.uk, our Australia site, etc.). We have many people who participate on both our FB page and our message boards. We have no issues with people linking their own, personal FB pages in their profiles, or on your signature on Cruise Critic forums. You understand that doing so allows our members to know your "real life" name.

ROLL CALLS created on FB are not anonymous. Most of them are open to the public. Even if they are private groups, once you are accepted into the group everyone will know your real name. In doing so you have pretty much told all those people -- strangers -- when you will be away on vacation. The fact of the matter is most people do not understand how much personal information they are sharing.

On Cruise Critic roll calls, everyone is anonymous. You have the ability to remain as anonymous as you'd like throughout the entire Roll Call timeframe and throughout your entire cruise if you so desire. You can be JoeCruise101 until the day you disembark. The choice is yours, you share as much or as little as YOU choose to; everyone starts out on a level playing field on Cruise Critic. Anonymous user names only.

Also, FB Roll Calls have already proven to divide Roll Calls. People, for whatever reason, who cannot seem to get along may open a FB group and then want more people to participate, so they harvest members from the original ROLL CALL. There have been actual disruptions encouraged on FB directed towards our ROLL CALLs.

We believe a ROLL CALL created on Cruise Critic should stay here. We've worked long and hard to create this community, and have provided a certain level of trust and privacy for our members. If they choose to participate in a FB Roll Call, they'll have to learn about it somewhere other than Cruise Critic.

We request that you not solicit people to your Facebook page on any of our ROLL CALLS.

Are you sure you have that right? CC doesn't want you advertising Facebook groups on cruise critic, but why would they care if you link a cruise critic roll call on facebook? They don't want traffic driven away from CC. I think they would want you to drive traffic here and Facebook certainly doesn't care.

I was on a Carnival roll call a couple of years ago and someone posted the link to the fb page. It was later removed by CC and I think they mention it in their rules somewhere. The poster even said that they were told by CC they couldn't post the link. If I'm wrong, then I'm wrong and I apologize.

The emblem for fb is on every cc page, just click on it

Because it takes people away from CC and they don't want that. We've already lost a lot of people to fb that would have been on CC's roll calls and message boards.

 

I'm also in agreement that it really is pointless to go to the roll call and make a post that you're on that sailing and then you're never heard from again. Also I never quite understood why so many who never once participated in the roll call show up at the M&M. But maybe the possibility of a free prize has something to do with that. I do miss the days when people posted to the roll call often and set up group activities. For me personally, it really enhanced the cruise.

I miss this, too. We've had some great roll calls that turned into some really great M&Ms! I guess the newer generation prefers the "new" way. The fun part of a roll call is those people who continue to post daily or almost daily. That's how you make "friends" even before the cruise and the M&M!

We ended up at the same table for dinner with a couple who had been on the roll call often. I recognized him from his Avatar and asked him if he was so and so (I only knew his CC name) and he said yes, I told him who I was and we had the best time with them the rest of the cruise. Some of our past roll calls have had cabin crawls and some active roll call members were invited to one couple's suite for drinks and snacks, etc. I'm still in contact via CC with some of those people from that roll call. It ain't what is used to be...

What type of search would you put into Facebook to locate these pages? I would like to have a secondary resource if I had an opportunity. I've only been able to find RC page and the ship itself. No such luck finding anything remotely like a roll call page for particular cruises. Maybe I'm using a wrong search words?

You would need to put in your sailing date and/or ship's name. Someone would have to set up the page and then direct people to it. Usually someone will hint at it in the roll call on CC. It is against CC's rules to actually mention a roll call page on fb, but people still do.

I tend to agree with you OP. Early on the roll calls and M&Ms used to be very busy and a lot of people showed up for the M&Ms.

Since fb came along, more and more people are setting up pages for particular cruises and we are losing roll call members to that.

Our last four or five roll calls have been slack even up to the sail date and those attending M&Ms are getting fewer and fewer. I've tried the fb roll calls but they are not as good as the CC roll calls in my opinion. I love the layout of CC message boards.

Royal normally issues docs and tags at 49 days before the cruise.

I have been able to print out once we've paid in full. On our last FOS cruise we paid in full at time of booking and in a couple days I was able to print everything.

We do tip extra on the last night if we have an exceptional cabin steward or wait team. We will tip the steward $10-$20 depending on any extras he did with or without a request from us. If there is an assistant steward, we tip him/her $5-$10.

If the wait team was exceptional we tip the waiter $15-20 extra and the assistant waiter $10-15. I made a thank you card with thank you in many different languages with our names and cabin number inside thanking them for their service.

Once we tipped a bartender extra on the last night because we had him every evening before dinner and when we sat down he would just bring our drinks over -- he remembered after the second night what we liked. He loved the card and told me with a big smile, "I keep these". He was also happy with his tip!

will I be able to print my luggage tags beforehand?

As soon as your trip is paid in full you will be able to print docs and tags within a day or so.

From what I have read I think the main difference is Mr. sanchos has more activities for kids. Nachi is very quiet and laid back so if you need to keep kids busy Nachi may not be a good fit for you.

 

We like the peace and quiet......but of course we are old.....LOL. :D

I agree...we like the peaceful, laid back atmosphere of Nachi Cocum. It's a nice change from rushing around on a tour. I also like that there aren't a lot of kids there.

We put a reservation in for Nochi Cocum on Cozumel. For those of,you who have been there, how far is it from yhe port? What is the best or cheapest way to get there? Any issues getting back to the port?

We always take a taxi, it's too far to walk. When you pull in you will wonder what you gotten yourself into, but don't worry. Once you are passed the entrance and onto that beautiful beach and pool, you will love it. You'll have your own chairs and umbrella on the beach and your won waiter for the day. If you want, book yourself an open-air massage and I promise you, the wind, the sound of the waves and that massage will put you to sleep. Ask for Jose, the bartender and tell him to make your drinks a little extra strong.

Included in your price is an appetizer, entrée and a dessert. All the food has been good that we've ever gotten and we usually end up in the pool or hot tub for the majority of the day. We go every time we are in Cozumel. We do tip our waiter and Jose a little extra. Your waiter will also call you a cab when you're ready to go.

Come back and let us know how you like it.

Everything (ships, cruise lines, restaurants, etc.) get good reviews and bad reviews. I wouldn't worry about them too much...make your own review.

We were on the Freedom of the Seas this past Sept. and have booked it again for Sept. 2016. There are things I loved about it, things I only liked and things that I hated. My review is below in my signature.

A few years ago we had booked a cruise to Hawaii on the Pride of America (NCL). All we could find were really bad reviews. Like you we wondered if we should go. We did, and loved the ship, did not see any dirty bed sheets, or have any of the terrible things happen that all those reviews mentioned.

Go and enjoy your cruise. Reviews are only someone else's opinions.

Here's a favorite from our Freedom of the Seas cruise this past September:

Nope, we are paid in full but it still says we have to wait till 90 days out.

That is really strange. When we booked our FOS for this past Sept., we paid in full at booking and I had access to docs and tags in two-three days after booking. Now that I think about it, we were within that 90 day time period. I would keep checking back periodically...never know what may happen!

We're booked on the Anthem on January 15th 2016 through Costco Travel and hadn't received our e-docs. After two phone calls to Costco who called RCI we were told that RCI doesn't send the e-docs to them anymore. Now, that's not to say that RCI or other Travel Agencies have followed in their steps. I was told it's something that's relatively new. I asked why as we're D+ members and have always received them 30-45 days prior. All that Costco Travel said is that it's a way to save some time to not have to email them to their clients while the "new" norm is to obtain your e-docs by going to the RCI websight and follow these steps: Go to the RC Home screen, scroll to the bottom, look for Countdown to Cruise, then Cruise Documentation, then Guest Vacation Documents, You can either Check Status or Print them.

The other way if you're a Costco member is to pay them $35.00 and they'll do that for you and send them by US mail. (I think not)!

For about the past 10 years now, we've been able to print our own e-docs from the cruise lines' website (Carnival, RCI, Celebrity, Princess). Since the cruise lines started this, the TA doesn't send us anything anymore except an e-mail from them confirming the booking and telling us to go the cruise line's website to get docs, luggage tags, and check-in. I don't think it's new. I do miss going to the mailbox and getting those cruise docs after waiting weeks for them and doing the doc dance back to the house! Some things were better the old way. Now we have them instantly; nice and convenient, but not as exciting.

One more point that I'd like to make about printing your own e-docs is that you're looking at printing 20 pages using tri-color ink. Now if you don't mind using the paper and tri-color ink especially where you may want to have your luggage tags in color then that's the thing to do. But you'll also note that with the e-docs there isn't a separate page that you can check off the individual pages to only print. That was the old e-docs, now you have no choice other than to print all 20 pages. (maybe you can use the computer at work?)

If you click on the page you want to print, then click on print, choose current page and that's all you'll get.

Im 52 days away, been fully paid and my set sail info has been filled out for months. Still no cruise docs yet. I was thinking closer to 45 days maybe but someone on my rollcall got theirs weeks ago. Maybe it means they are giving you an upgrade ;)

Why don't go back into your booking on RCI's website, I bet you are able to print your boarding passes and luggage tags if you are fully paid. When we booked our FOS cruise this past September, we paid in full at time of booking and within a couple of days, I could print everything.

Don't meant to hijack, but does anyone know if the Freedom has a dining room open for lunch on embarkation day?

Never had them e-mailed to me, but I have been able to print docs as well as luggage tags from the cruise line's website within a day or two after booking when we paid in full at time of booking.

We have a cruise on Radiance starting April 20 and we can't even complete the online check in, we get this "Online Check-in will be available 90 days prior to your sail date. Please try again during that time."

 

This just falls in line with the motto of Royal's IT Department

 

"We strive to be consistently inconsistent" :p :D

You may be getting that message if you have not paid in full yet. If you have, then you should be able to check-in. I've never gotten that message when we're all paid up. I'm getting it now because we have a cruise booked on FOS in September and we elected to only pay a deposit this time.

You're welcome. If you go on the RCI website and search "special needs" lots of applicable info incl. email will come up.

I didn't do a search...I looked everywhere for a link, but didn't "search". Other cruise lines have a link within your booking, but I found nothing there either. Thanks again, appreciate it!

special_needs @rccl.com

Well, that makes sense! Thank you, Johnamac!

 

We have emailed the Special Needs dept at Royal.

 

We are sailing the Freedom soon, and we have requested the eggcrates from Royal.. Lets see what happens....

 

Requesting the extra duvets from the cabin attendant is a good idea also..

 

Thanks Cruise Critic Posters......

 

What is their e-mail address...I have looked all over RCI's website and can't find it. We will be on the FOS again in September.

I wondered how sanitary those foam egg crate toppers were.......so I guess they figured out they weren't that great to pass on to each new passenger. I had seen some sad ones out in the hallway on change over day.:eek:

What about sleeping on a mattress that has new passengers week in and week out? Who knows how long those mattresses are on the beds before they're replaced...

I always request the egg crate/foam mattress in advance through Special Needs. I also request a fan for my asthma and we usually have to ask again once we get on board, but I always get one.

I just found the cutest thing from Thirty-One. If you know someone who sells Thirty-One this is perfect. It's a little tri-fold that has a place for DL, but you can put your boarding pass in that; a place for money. It has a latch to go on your belt loop and is 4X2 3/4. Item number is 62010228, 0228 City Charcoal Snake, Letters from London.

Here are pics open and closed: